Max Maximum Ride 5
by AllanaAndShayne
Summary: What was supposed to be a government trip to Hawaii to help the mysterious Mr. Chumaraka can only get worse with Max and the flock there to help. With Ter Borcht, Jeb, and the rest of the gang, this is one addition to the series you won't want to miss.
1. Chapter 1

"Guys, come check out this cupboard! You can like, walk into it!" Gazzy stood in the kitchen. Of course he did. All he ever thought about nowadays was his stomach and making bombs.

"Yeah, that's pretty good Gazzy, but did you check out the upstairs floor? Or should I say, floors? There are three!" Angel called from the third floor.

The old -fashioned spiraling staircase wound it's way around the entire foyer, leaving the place roomy enough to fly in pretty large circles. To say the least, it was the largest area open enough to fly in that I'd ever seen "indoors.

Nudge's grinning, yet slightly maniacal, face peered out over the railing. "Max, I found the computer room," she called, the corner of what looked like a laptop teetering dangerously over the edge next to her face.

"Be careful with the electronics honey. You don't want anybody's money to have been wasted because you dropped the things over the edge," I said, hoping I didn't need to make an emergency take off to catch the computer because of Nudge's carelessness.

"I'm not completely nuts. Yet. Anyways, why would I drop anything over the railing? I might hit you or Fang on the head," she said, and giggled at the surprised look on my face.

I quickly wiped the emotion-revealing look off my face, and whipped around to find Fang staring at me, apparently amused by my lack of attentiveness as to where he was.

"Very funny. It's not like I wasn't paying attention. Just paying more attention to something else. Just like you were paying more attention to something else," I said, referring to his stare.

As always, his dark eyes revealed nothing, but I smirked anyway, knowing my comment had irked him.

Okay, so that probably wasn't very nice, but I'm not always a nice person, okay? In fact, with all the destruction that generally happens around me, I wouldn't be surprised to be classified as a unanimously voted not nice person.

He turned away, slinking off to find a room to claim. Even though he had always had the natural ability to mask his feelings, the slight embarrassment that I had noticed exactly what he was staring at emanated off of him. Or maybe that was my embarrassment. Either way, it was embarrassment aura just waiting to be noticed.

I followed Fang up the stairs to try and find a room. It didn't look like any of the rooms were customized, so I ducked into each one to find a shape or area I just liked in general.

Okay, so that's probably not the best way to judge a room, but it worked for me. Turned out that the first room I found had a skylight and a roomy, empty space.

My only thought at that time was, "Cool. A window in the ceiling." After a more thorough examination later, I realized that the whole ceiling was made of glass. No more claustrophobia for Max.

Anyway, after helping Angel settle into her room, I went to find Mom. She was, surprise, surprise, in the kitchen baking her famous chocolate chip cookies. (So maybe famous is an exaggeration, but their famous in my head, okay? They should be famous anyway. But no. The teens of today aren't interested in chocolate chip cookies. Stupid modern celebrities.)

"Hey Mom. What's up?" I said, snagging a fresh cookie off the tray.

"Nothing much. How are you and the others settling in? Fang didn't seem so… What's the word… Fangish. Or maybe he was more Fangish….," my mom said, trying to find a word for Fang's mood.

"The flock just calls that being Fang. What did he say?" I asked, wondering if I needed to go punch Fang in the gut for being rude to my mom. (Okay, so maybe I wouldn't really do that, but that doesn't mean I can't get after him about it.)

"Well, he didn't actually say anything. Not anything rude anyway," I relaxed my grip on the kitchen counter. "He just came and asked if we were going to go get some paint and stuff soon. I think he wanted to paint his room black," my mom said, hoping I wouldn't lose my temper at Fang because of what she said.

Mom had always been really ready to please, with the flock anyway. Maybe it was because she hadn't known me for the majority of my life, but still. It was kind of nice most of the time, but it occasionally got on my nerves.

The flock and I aren't all that used to being treated like royalty. And in my opinion, we shouldn't be treated that way at all. It'll just set us up for disaster if we need to go back into hiding. (I know that the chance of Flyboys or some other mutant coming back was slim to none, but I don't want to be taking any chances.


	2. Chapter 2

18:10

"Are we finished yet? I'm way bored." That was Fang, by the way, not me. I was trying to enjoy the situation I was in. Sort of. Okay, so at least I wasn't moping around like a child. And Fang was definitely wallowing in what would have been his childhood days, if of course, we had all been normal and not raised in a science lab.

"Fang, just enjoy it. Besides, we're getting your stuff next," Angel said, slipping on her Bambi eyes. Oh lord, now we were gonna have a lot more fun. Angel with Bambi eyes and Fang trying to ignore them. Fun, fun.

Okay, I admit it. I was at the mall. The big place of shopping and pink stuff and ultimately not Maxness. But I was there, trying to be a good sport about while we picked out furniture. God, it scared me thinking of how much money mom and Jeb were spending on us. (Okay, not so much Jeb. He can spend as much money as he wants on me and he'll never make up for what he and his science groupies did to us. So sorry if I gave you the impression that I might forgive you, Jeb. It's not gonna happen.)

But anyway, it still scared me to think of how much money Mom was spending. I mean, she was buying paint and carpet and wood flooring, (she actually bought mahogany wood to put in Fangs room since he said that tiles were lame.) She was buying new clothes and beds and lamps and tables and chairs and she already spent about a hundred thousand dollars on Nudge's computers. (No wait, the government paid for those.)

Anyway, it was a lot of money, and I felt sorry for her. I was so making the flock write thank you notes for all of this. All of it!

"Max, what do you think?" my mom said, startling me out of my mental note plans. When I looked up, I was staring into a sea of black. Pure black. I had to keep my jaw from dropping.

Fang smiled down at me. "What are you grinning at?" I asked.

"Your face," he said.

"Ha ha, very funny. Just because you're in Fang lala land doesn't mean that you're safe from a punch in the gut." And I was serious this time. Nobody makes fun of anybody within the flock. No matter how many hard feelings are exchanged.

I've at least tried to keep the flock from splitting up again. You have to give me a little credit.

I edged away from the sea of black and went to help Angel and Nudge carry their merchandise. Mom tried to call be back, saying that we were about to go pick out my stuff, but I said I wanted to be surprised and walked away, Angel and Nudge babbling along behind me.

"Look Max," Angel said, holding up shopping basket full of fabrics.

"What are they sweetie?" I asked, trying to pay attention to Angel while still watching Nudge search through the rows of lamps.

"They're dresses," Angel said, and pulled out her bear. "For Celeste."

"That's nice, sweetie. Hey, go get Nudge and we can go pay for this stuff."

"Cool," Angel said, and ran off in the general direction of Nudge.

I leaned against a rack of liquid soap containers and sighed. Shopping wore me out. Fang came up to me from behind, touching me on the shoulder.

"What the…" I spun around, not even trying to cover my surprise. Fang was getting way to good at going unnoticed for his own good. "What was that for? You seriously need to stop popping up behind me like that," I said in a barely audible whisper. Angel and Nudge didn't need to know that he had surprised me twice in two days.

"Oh my god, Max. You're losing your touch. Maybe you need to go live out in the wild while on the run from some Flyboys for a while. Or maybe all you need is a trip to Hawaii," Fang said, completely losing me.

"What is all this about Hawaii. That had nothing to do with the conversation. Besides, you came up behind me," I said, genuinely confused. Why was Fang bringing up Hawaii?

"A certain someone of mild importance just called and said that we need to go to Hawaii. Don't ask me why, but that's just what they said. They said so little about the entire trip that I was surprised that the phone didn't self destruct," Fang said, growing serious. "But I don't see why we have to go. I bet we can work something out."

My discomfort grew as he continued talking. When he finished his ramble, I said, "Yeah, like everyone will willingly consent to go to Hawaii. Like a trip for the government worked out so well last time. We ended up in Florida for crying out loud. If we go now, we might end up in South Bolivia!"

Fang frowned a little, seeing my point. "Yeah, well, I'll talk to Dr. Martinez about it. Like I said, our going is probably debatable," he said. His pupils grew larger as he gazed at me. I don't know for sure, but I think that's a sign that he likes me.

Either way, his lingering gaze was disturbing and I waved my hand in front of his face. "Fang, earth to Fang. Stop staring and help me find Angel. And Nudge," I said, seeing him blink a couple times as if coming out of a trance. He muttered a hurried apology and walked quickly away.

"Oh lord," I thought, and walked towards the clothing section, thinking that if Nudge was anywhere, she was looking at clothes.


	3. Chapter 3

18:13

Okay, so obviously I found Nudge and Angel and got out of there alive. Well, mostly. I think my sense of security left when Fang came to tell me about the meddling government's call.

Speaking of the meddling government, we ended up in, guess where? Washington D.C., trying to convince the government that we didn't need to go to Hawaii. That going to Hawaii was completely irrelevant. That we didn't want to go to Hawaii and there was no way they were making us. That was until Total showed up.

Yeah, Total was invited. We hadn't known where our partially flying, talking, mutant canine friend was until then. Probably somewhere like Jamaica with Akila.

But Total and Akila came from there little happy place and went to the meeting. After all, what was possibly dangerous trip to Hawaii without Total?

To cut the two hours spent in the meeting into a much smaller time, I'll summarize.

No one in the flock had voted to go to Hawaii. None of them. Except Total. And once Total got there, Angel was with him. She started coming up with the weirdest reasons as to why they should go. Then Gazzy joined in, then Iggy.

"Oh great," I had thought. The government plus Total, Angel, Gazzy, and Iggy on one said, and Fang and I on the other. It was totally unfair, but I figured that we would be going anyway. Angel would eventually give in to the prospect of a warm winter, especially after what had happened a month ago.

Yeah, it had been just a month since we were almost killed by a hurricane. A month since we had been in freezing cold Antarctica. A month since our goal had been saving the penguins. And now Hawaii. How many more potentially deadly places are we going to go before we get left alone by the police?

So yeah. We were going to Hawaii. I just hoped that a hurricane wouldn't sweep us away this trip. Maybe this would be a simple trip to save the world from global warming.


	4. Chapter 4

18:13

Okay, so we're on a plane. Sort of. We're actually above the plane, while Mom and Jeb watch us through the window. I think that's perfectly fine with me, but Total seems to wish that he had chosen to stay in the plane. In my opinion he should have stopped complaining. At least I hadn't dropped him yet.

We made a stop in Arizona for a cookie break at Mom's other house, but pretty much flew it straight threw. No casualties, no bruises, no harm done the entire trip. Whoop-de-doo.

Anyway, the smooth flight had the whole flock in a good mood by the time we had landed on the main island. Everyone except me. And Fang. Not like anybody else cared enough to notice our foul mood, but I suppose that was for the best. Fang might have punched somebody hard enough to knock him or her back to the mainland.

I have to admit, the view in Hawaii was amazing. Absolutely stunning. An overall beauty to behold. (Okay those were about the gooiest words I've ever said about a thing, or a person, for that matter, but oh well. The important thing is, the view was awesome.)

"Maximum Ride?" a voice asked from behind me. I mentally patted myself on the back for not jumping ten feet in the air, and spun around to face a tall man in a black suit with dark sunglasses.

"Welcome to Hawaii," the man said. "I am Mr. Chumaraka. My friends in the D.C. told me you were coming."

"Hi Mr.…" I tried to say, but Iggy interrupted me.

"What kind of name is Mr. Chumaraka?" Iggy asked, judging that the man was a government official and therefore not dangerous and jumping straight to the more important question of the man's weirdness.

"It's a traditional Hawaiian name. When I came here from D.C, one of the Hawaiian tribes welcomed me in. And I couldn't be in a Hawaiian tribe without a Hawaiian name, so, I chose the name Chumaraka," Mr. Chumaraka said.

"You're saying you chose the name Chumaraka?" Iggy asked.

"Yeah, you got a problem with dat?" Mr. Chumaraka asked, sounding slightly insulted, but mostly angry.

"No, not at all Mr. Chumaraka. I apologize for Iggy's intruding questions. That was very rude of him," I said, flashing Iggy a glare. Then I remembered and said, "I'm glaring at you Iggy."

"Sorry Max," Iggy said, smirking.

"Yeah, apologize to Mr. Chumaraka, not me," I said, and then turned to Mr. Chumaraka. "Were you sent to meet us?"

"Yes, of course. Otherwise I would be safe at home with my wife, not out here with the danger of being killed," Mr. Chumaraka said, then covered his mouth slightly with his friend.

"What do you mean, danger of being killed," I remembered that I wasn't the only one here, and turned to where Fang's placid face twitched uncomfortably.

"I said, what do you mean, danger of being killed?" Fang said, staring down Mr. Chumaraka.

"Noth…Nothing. Just forget it. It's nothing, simply a petty paranoia," Mr. Chumaraka said, shaken from his previous comfort. "Come along now. The mayor of this town will be waiting for you. You may then proceed to your hotel."

"Hey, Max, I remember watching this movie about someone being in danger of being killed and ohmygosh it was so scary and I almost screamed and…" Thanks Mr. Chumaraka. You got Nudge started about movies.

"Nudge, just be quiet until we get to the city sweetie," I said, and watched her and the rest of the flock walk over the hillside, following Mr. Chumaraka. I then turned to Mom and Jeb. They were kissing. "Are you coming? And by the way, get a room," I said impatiently, and walked hurriedly away to catch up to the others, not checking to make sure that Mom and Jeb were coming.


	5. Chapter 5

18:14

"I can't believe it," I thought as I caught up with Fang, who was lagging behind a bit, apparently waiting for me.

"What's up? What kept you?" Fang asked, obviously concerned at my suddenly gray mood.

"Hold on," I said, and then flew up to Angel. "Sweetie, I'm going up with Fang. We'll follow you from up there," I said, and then heard Angel's reply in my head.

"Maximum and Fang, sitting in a tree. K-I-S…"

"Alright, Angel that's enough. We're not talking about that anyway. And since when do you call me Maximum?" I asked, interrupting Angel's song. I then proceeded to take a running start and jumped into the air, flying above Fang and motioning with my hand for him to join me.

"Okay, now that we're alone, what's up?" Fang asked, his normally placid and unreadable eyes glazed over with concern. "You waited for Jeb and Dr. Martinez, being perfectly happy, but then were all depressed when you came back."

"Yeah, like you've never been depressed," I said, still deciding as to whether or not I should disclose this information to Fang. After all, since he didn't even know who his parents were, he might not understand the position I'm in.

Okay, so maybe I'm being unfair. Jeb was like a father to all of us, and we all felt equally betrayed by him when he joined the white coats. And Mom was as close to a real mother as he had ever known. But those were my real parents. One of them had betrayed me, but had been accepted back by the other. Double betrayal. And then I decided I would spill my guts.

"Okay, Fang. You know that some of the younger kids have started trusting Jeb again, and are trying to forgive him?" I said, trying to not break down in tears.

"Yeah," he said, a confused expression unmasking his emotions. "You know Max, if you decide that you want to forgive Jeb, that's fine with me. That's your decision, and I can't change your mind on that."

He actually thought I had forgiven that traitor? "No way, Fang. But apparently my mom has," I said, my eyes now burning from unshed tears.

"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you mean that, like, Dr. Martinez wants to marry Jeb or something?"

"No, it's not that extreme yet, but it's going in that direction. I saw Mom and Jeb kissing. They were so obsorbed into their own little gushy world that they didn't even know I was watching them until I said something," I said, hoping Fang didn't think I was making a big deal out of nothing.

We circled in the air a bit, wheeling like the hawks. Those hawks seemed so distant, such a far away memory that it was almost unreal. Like the flock actually running away was part of a whole different world.

Fang finally spoke up. "What did you say," he asked. "When you saw them, I mean."

"I told them to get a room," I said, a torrent of hurt and betrayal and anger at this newest problem boiling to the surface. I let the hot tears run down my face, falling to the ground below.

This was weird for me. I hardly ever cry. Only when Fang's been around me, it seems. I only seem comfortable crying around him.

"Well, at least you didn't yell at them. I would have if I was in your position." When he saw that I was crying, he flew in closer, wrapping his arms over my shoulders. "Max, it's okay. It'll all blow over. They're just feeling a little lonely now that they have to go around all these places with us," he said, trying to comfort me.

"Yeah, well, they should've stayed home," I said, and leaned against Fang, letting him wrap me in his embrace.

We flew like that for a while, checking on the position of the rest of the flock every couple of minutes. We didn't speak at all, just mulled over the prospect of Mom and Jeb being together. It just didn't seem to fit. Not at all. I eventually decided that they weren't compatible and would stop flirting with each other after about a week. Once I had that thought in my head, I decided I could wait to tell the flock. No need to get them worked up over something so temporary.

We reached the main town in about twenty minutes, not a long time compared to some trips we've taken. None of the flock were tired, and their stamina surprised Mr. Chumaraka. Ha, he should see us fly sometime.

The only ones who were tired were Mom and Jeb. Must've wasted their breath kissing the whole walk. I was surprised Angel hadn't found out about it yet. Of course, maybe she had and just wasn't telling anybody. You can never know with Angel.

Anyway, what these Hawaiian people called a city was pretty much a rinky dinky little town out in the middle of nowhere. Of course, the whole state was in the middle of nowhere, so, it figures. But at least the locals were nice.

When we reached the 'city,' the townspeople gathered along the streets to see the kids with wings. Aw, poor people. Never seen a mutant before. Okay, so over half of the world's population hadn't seen a mutant before, but still. These people really wanted to see something weird, it looked like. And I don't blame them.

The entire city was so boring and gray, I wanted to sit in a corner and cry. That might have just been my foul mood acting up, but I could see that the others felt it too.

"It's alright," Mr. Chumaraka said. "We aren't staying here. We're staying over their, in the tourist part of town." I could hear the whole group heave a sigh of relief. If we had been staying there, we would have ditched the whole mission then and there.

I realized something at that point in time. Nobody had told us what we were doing in Hawaii. And I knew for a fact that we weren't there for a relaxing vacation. This was where people got down to business, not where people went to be lazy in the sunshine. And when we found what our mission was, we were definitely not going to be relaxing. At all.


	6. Chapter 6

18:18

"Aloha, Maximum. Welcome to Hawaii. I heard you could help us with our predicament."

A man in a flowery red and yellow Hawaiian shirt greeted us at the town hall, a vast building compared to the huts we had seen before.

By the time we had made it through the local part of the city, dark was falling, and Dr. Martinez and Jeb were trying very hard to keep from lagging behind.

Yeah, she doesn't have the right to be called Mom by me anymore. Not until she ditches the scumbag.

Anyway, once we finally got to the town hall, the mayor escorted us to a landing pad, where a helicopter waited for us. We were all ushered inside, despite my protests. We were told that on the flight to the tourist part of town, we would be enlightened of the details of our mission.

"As I have already said, Aloha. I feel very honored to meet the infamous mutants at last," the mayor said, his husky voice easily heard over the droning blades of the helicopter.

"Did he just call us 'infamous mutants'?" Iggy asked, apparently thinking he might be going deaf as well as blind.

"Yeah, he did Iggy," I said, fuming over the mayor's choice of words. The flock wasn't infamous. Okay, so maybe we did some bad stuff, but only because we were threatened with death.

I didn't say any of this aloud, but sat there watching the mayor of the town continue talking.

"I was informed that you have no idea what you are doing here," the mayor said.

Nudge raised her hand as if to say, "I have an idea. It might be completely irrelevant to our situation, but I want to talk." She held her hand in the air until I gave her a pointed look, but even then she lowered it reluctantly.

Once the mayor was sure that there wouldn't be any more interruptions, he continued. "You are here because…"

"Yeah, yeah, we know why we're here," Angel spoke up. "You want us to help save the fish from people who are dumping their toxic waste into the ocean."

I would have to talk to her about that. It's not polite to read people's minds without their permission. Especially if the person is in charge of a city.

"Well then, since you already know, I'll have the helicopter deposit you at your hotel," the mayor said.

"Wait," I said. Hold on, why did I say that? The mayor turned from the pilot he was instructing to look at me.

"Yes Maximum," he said, staring me down with his glaring eyes. When the setting sun reflected against them, the glowed an eerie red color, as if they were on fire.

I shivered and tried to remember what I was going to say. "Ummm… You never told us your name," I said, hoping he thought that was what I was really going to say. But that would be just like me, making a fool of myself in front of the leader of a city. That would be perfect. Just perfect.

"My name does not concern you," the mayor said, and looked back to the pilot. He muttered a bit and said to Dr. Martinez and Jeb, "Here, put these on." They were parachutes. "The pilot doesn't have anywhere to land without stirring up a lot of unpleasant dirt. We can't have that now can we?" The mayor smiled, and pointed to a large, fancy looking building, made in the shape of a volcano. "That's your hotel," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow, when we will begin your mission."

"Great," I thought. "The flock and I have to jump out of an helicopter." It's not like I was scared or anything, it's just it seemed kind of rude to force us to jump out of helicopter that we didn't want to get into anyway.

Dr. Martinez and Jeb went first, holding each other's hands like long lost teenage lovers. That was meant to be an insult, by the way.

Then Gazzy and Angel went, taking off from the helicopter and swerving above it to wait for Iggy. Fang went to the edge to watch Iggy, Angel, and Gazzy, swing down to the ground before he jumped, looking back at me and free falling before he whisked open his grand black wings to stop his fall.

Then it was my turn.

"Not you, Maximum. Not you."

I turned to the mayor. "What do you mean not…" I stopped when I saw three Flyboys come at me from each side. "What are you…?" I sputtered as I jumped into the air to hit most of the Flyboys in the head with a round house kick.

"You will know soon enough Maximum, you will know soon enough." I heard Mr. Chumaraka's voice say.

I plowed my way through to the door of the helicopter. "Oh crud," I said when I saw what had been an empty space now plugged up with metal. "Oh crud."

One of the Flyboys kneed me in the back as five others seized by the arms. "So much for saving the fishes," I thought as yet another Flyboy came up behind a shoved a bag roughly over my head. The world went black as the Flyboys let me fall to the helicopter's metal floor.


	7. Chapter 7

18:18

I woke up in a dog crate. Ohhh, where was I? I hadn't been in a dog crate since…. Oh no. The School. The whole thing came rushing back to me. But why did they just want me?

Two Flyboys stood outside the cage door, checking every once in a while to make sure I wasn't trying to open the latch. Like my fingers were small enough to do that.

One of the Flyboys talked quietly into his walkie talkie, telling one of the scientists that I was awake. The white coat came several minutes later.

"Aww, Borchy, long time no see," I said, my teeth clenched together. He was behind something like this again?!?

"Maximum. Velcome to my lab. Isn't eet vonderful?" Ter Borcht said, looking at me with some thing a little less than awe.

"No. It's terrible. Vhat kind of place do you run here?" I said, trying to mimic Ter Borcht as best I could. "Keeping your expeeriments in cages an' all."

Okay, my imitation wasn't as good as Gazzy's, but it got under his skin enough to make him clench his fists and scrunch up his face angrily.

"Dat ees enuff from you young lady," Ter Borcht said angrily. "Geet her out ov der." After a moment, he reminded the Flyboys, "An' don't leet go ef her when she ees out."

Ha. Were the Flyboys to stupid now to remember to hold on to me once they removed be from the crate? Maybe that would make life easier for the flock when they came to rescue me.

But what if they didn't rescue me? What if they thought I was talking with the mayor about something concerning our mission? Or, what if they didn't care enough to come and forget me?

I heard the Flyboy's tough fingernails scrape against the latch on the cage, surprising me out of my depressing fantasies.

They grabbed me roughly by the upper arms, and wrestled me out of the dog crate. Even though the dog crate was terrible, I wasn't leaving it without a fight.

Once about five more squads of Flyboys had been hurried into the room, I let them tie me up and set me in a chair that was in the room, apparently so the Flyboys could sit and watch me.

"So, we meet again, Maximum Ride," Ter Borcht said, grinning maniacally.

"Why do evil guys always say that?" I asked. "It's just so random. Duh we meet again. I'm staring right at you!"

"Ha ha," Ter Borcht said, his unibrow flexing with held back anger. "That vas very vunny Maximum, but you're in a vhole lot ef trouble viyhout cracking your petty jokes."

I stifled a chuckle, and mentally patted myself on the back for getting Ter Borcht worked up.

"You might laugh now, but you vill not be laughing once the other scientists are done with you," he said in the kind of menacing voice that made your skin crawl. "Take her to dee lab boys," Ter Borcht said to the Flyboys, and then, remembering said, "and don't let go ef heer unteel she ees strapped to de table."

Then the Flyboys swung me around toward the door, my fists and feet flailing at any exposed metal I could get at, and my mind filled with the bright steel of needles and surgical equipment.


	8. Chapter 8

I was slammed onto an icy, hard metal table. So hard, I could already feel bruises forming. I could see flashes of white coats as the, well, _whitecoats_, scrambled around.

"Quick! Give her the Nitrus Oxide before we sedate her!" I heard Mr. Chumaraka say.

Uh-uh. I am _not _going to be strapped to a table _again_.

I kicked harder, but it didn't do any good. Stupid machines. They can't have old fashion models with weaknesses, now, can they?

Some one, or _something, _pressed a mask over my face, so that I was inhaling something sweet and calming.

I couldn't feel my legs anymore. Or my arms. Or my anything. I felt like I was idly floating on a cloud in space somewhere. It was like Valium except I didn't feel quite as idiotic… or emotional.

In fact, the only emotion I was processing was vague happiness.

Two faces leaned over me: Ter Borcht and Chumaraka.

"And vhat," I dimly heard Bortchy ask. "Ees your spectacular plan, Ailani?"

I felt a slight prickling in my arm and twitched like I was trying to shoo a bug. I could hear a distant beeping. The lights above were bright—like _really _bright. They kept swirling and twinkling at me, blacking out the men's faces.

"All in time, Bortcht, all in time." He said in a cold voice.

I struggled to focus on his face--everything was spinning. His face cold and reserved and his lips were pressed together so they looked white. Ter Borcht gave a huff and left the room.

"All in good time…" he whispered, taking off his sunglasses. Even under the influence of the gas, I had to fight not to scream.

His eyes were a bright crimson red, not unlike the color of blood, except brighter, neon. They bugged out of his head by at least three inches and stared at me with only slits for pupils.

The beeping sped up and I had the urge to puke. But I couldn't. I couldn't make my eyes leave his.

Chumaraka seemed to notice the disturbance his appearance had sent through me because he looked down at me. Slowly, he reached out and caressed my cheek.

I winced and shuddered. His touch wasn't scaly, but it wasn't human. It was somewhere in between—smooth, but almost slimy.

I opened my eyes. Chumaraka was still staring down at me, his hand still lying on my cheek. He opened his mouth slightly open and traced his fingers along my temples.

'_That's why he wouldn't shake hands.' _I thought. '_People would notice his skin.'_ But then I stopped. He wore gloves.

I mentally cursed myself. Who wears gloves in Hawaii?

"Yes Maximum," he crooned, his voice low and breathless sounding.

"We're in the same boat: you and I." he drew his hand across my forehead.

"You see what they've done to me too." He brushed his fingers lightly across my eyes and I gasped.

_They were webbed._

"We can get back at them, you know." He murmured.

My stomach was churning and the spinning seemed to increase. I was disgusted and, more than anything, I was scared.

"I—what?" I gasped with wide eyes. "What the hell are you?"

He continued trailing his hand along my face, which, even with drugs, was freaking disgusting.

He didn't seem to notice my last comment and continued with the same creepy look on his face.

He bent down closer to the operating table and let his hand rest on my neck. I could feel his breath on my ear as he spoke.

"I could have been normal." He breathed, his lips actually skimming my ear.

"I could have had a life, a family, a pet a girlfriend, but not now, not now."

He spoke more quickly and loudly. He sounded deranged.

"They've destroyed me, Maximum, look! Even you are disgusted by me and you are I hybrid just as I am!"

'_I'm seeing a difference in the looks department, there, buddy.'_ I thought dryly.

"We need to get revenge Maximum." He said, his voice cracking. "We need to inflict upon them the hell _they _put _us_ through!"

"I don't understand." I tried to say, but instead came out with: "I don unnerstan."

His head went back to looming over me as his eyes bore into me fiercely.

"Where do you think those mutants in the yard went?" He asked, his voice rising. "Terminated? I don't think so. The scientists who created us should know we don't die _that _easily. They were merely transported to a small isolated island right off the coast of Hawaii."

I stared at him while he grinned at me with an evil smile, his eyes glinting like fire. No, seriously, they were _red_.

"They are now my army and together we plot to reek havoc upon the world that created us—that rejected us."

He bent closer, so we were face-to-face.

"And now all we need is you. Our greatest warrior." He said softly, fingering a strand of my hair.

I jerked back.

"No." I said fuzzily.

"What?" he asked. He looked surprised.

Well, news for you Chubacca, this girl doesn't _do _obedience.

"No." I said again. My mind was reeling with insults I could throw at him, words that could scar him—but the stupid gas!

"Ah," he said thoughtfully. "I see. So, that's a no?"

"Heck yeah." I said faintly. Dang… not the effect I wanted.

His eyebrows knitted together, but cleared almost immediately.

"Very well, then. I'll just have to kill you." He said calmly.


	9. Chapter 9

Okay, now. In this situation, you might think of shaking the Velcro straps of your wrists. Or screaming like a maniac. But, sorry to tell you, I'm not you. I was not going to let this Mr. Chumaraka dude, or alien, or mutant, or whatever, get the best of me. So I let him stick his little needle in my arm.

The sharp stab of the little point pierced my skin with a sickening tear and a burst of pain that made me think it's coloration was about the same as Chewie's, (Mr. Chumarka's) eyes.

The pain was dulled a minute later by the gas, and I cringed at it's fast effects. I was waiting for the burning flame to start up in my stomach, and then move through my body in a torrent of flame right before I was to die. Only now I was worried that it wasn't going to happen.

No, I'm not crazy. It's not like I wanted to die. But at that point in time, my best option was to wait and see if the medicine Chewie had injected in me would really work. But in the previous paragraph, it was pretty well explained that I thought that I was going to die very soon, and I wanted a warning to my death, even if it is pain. (Don't judge me, okay? I'm not a normal person. I'm a bird kid. Deal with it.)

Chewie left the room a moment later, laughing maniacally. I lay on the table for what seemed like hours, running through memories of Fang and the rest of the gang. I thought of Ella as well, back in the house in Arizona, wondering how we were all doing. And I would be dead. Brilliant. That's the kind of stuff that hit's me just as I'm about to die. What a wonderful time to feel guilty.

I figured out that my life wasn't over about three hours later when Chewie came in again to ask if I was in pain.

"Weren't you supposed to kill me?" I asked, trying not to shrink away from his webbed fingers. While I was strapped to a table I figured out that Chewie was actually a man-frog mutant. Weird, huh?

"I thought about it," Chewie said, fingering his fake sideburns. "And I decided that I was going to give you a second chance," he said, reaching down and undoing the Velcro straps. He reached to the back of my neck and stroked it fondly.

I jerked as I tried to sit up. His stroke was eerie and slimy, especially with his webby, froggy fingers. I fingered the back of my neck where he had touched it. I could feel the blue numbers and dashes ooze their way up to skin level.

"No," I tried to say, as I suddenly became shaky. "No, you can't do this to me. This can't be happening." I forced the tears to stay in my eyes for only a minute, until I became so shaky that I could either keep myself from shaking or hold my tears back. And I definatley didn't want to shake.

"Oh yes, Maximum," Mr. Chumaraka said, his eyes glinting red again from beneath his dark sunglasses. "You will do what I want. Or you will die."

"Yeah, and… and what happens if I do what you want?" I asked, trying to find a way out of this. I had seen Ari die by expiration. I did not want that to happen to me.

"I'll take the expiration date away. Your little flock won't even know it was there," Mr. Chumaraka said, seeming very relieved. I guess he'd rather have me on his side than kill me.

"Wait," I said, finally catching on. "So I have to raid this island with you… With the flock? Why drag them into this? Why can't they just be oblivious of my expiration date as I help you, them thinking that I'm stuck in captivity somewhere?" I was majorly panicking. And those of you that have read the previous adventures of the flock will know that I hardly ever panick.

"Maximum, Maximum, Maximum. You still don't get it, do you? Your flock, as you call them, are very attached to you. They wouldn't sit around saving polluted waters that don't even exist when you could be in danger," Mr. Chumaraka said. This guy knew way to much for his own good.

Mr. Chumaraka took one long look at my devastated face and grimaced. "I see you need a moment to yourself," he said. "I'll be back in an hour with your decision."

As Mr. Chumaraka left, I knew what I had to do. So maybe Mr. Chumaraka had a point. The white-coats had gave him frog parts, for crying out loud. I would think that revenge was in order. Especially since frogs are just stupid any way, without being mutant frogs.

The only problem would be keeping the information from Angel… Hmmm… If Angel can read minds, then there's no way to keep it from her. Not possible. So….

I had formed a plan before Mr. Chumaraka came back.


End file.
